At the heart of this outcry is deep concern about the impact of loans and debt on African countries, particularly those that face significant economic challenges and vulnerabilities.
Faith leaders argue that while loans are ostensibly meant to foster development and alleviate poverty, they often come with stringent conditions that exacerbate existing socio-economic disparities and perpetuate cycles of debt dependency.
“We are here rising a concern and to tell the global leaders meeting like the G7, World Bank, the United Nations’, to tell them look, the loan that you give to Africa, their breck the African’s neck. If you excuse them, if you cancel these ones, probably they can use this money to do other activities for their population. This because we come from poor countries, and poor communities, That’s why we’re here.” Hajji Amir Ahmed MANGHALI Region programs coordinator for East Africa, Islamic Relief Said
African Faith leader’s strategy meeting held in Kigali 17 to 20 Jully 2024, with an agenda for global Economic Transformation facilitating Africa’s Access to Debt Relief and concessional finance in anticipation of the 2025 Jubilee year
“The jubilee year is coming, and we also committed the content of the concept of the jubilee, which call for a debt relief, the last time we had this, and ask for the relief of debts. So, we are renewing that call because since then nothing as change significantly in Africa.” Said Most Rev.Dr Matthew Hassan KUKAH catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Nigeria
Currently, African nations collectively owe hundreds of billions of dollars in external debt, with debt servicing often consuming a significant portion of their national budgets. This situation severely limits their ability to invest in essential services such as healthcare, education, and infrastructure, thereby perpetuating poverty and hindering long-term development.
“We urgently need a new dept jubilee to bring hope to humankind, and to bring the planet back from the brink of becoming uninhabitable our countries in particular face again agonizing choices between spending and investing on their people and paying their creditors.” Most Rev.Dr Matthew added
From a moral standpoint, faith leaders argue that lending institutions, driven by profit motives, have a moral responsibility to ensure that their financial engagements contribute positively to the well-being and development of borrower nations. They emphasize the importance of fair and transparent lending practices that prioritize human dignity and social justice over mere economic gain.
“Debt is one of the revenues of Government resources, and sometimes they look and say we need dept to construct these infrastructure…, But the public debts management is also the challenge and it’s affected many Africans Government, so you will see people talking debt but the why is been spent is not correct. De debt management is a concern, so debt is not a bad thing but how is it been used and that it what we try to be raised awareness.” Ms. Lucy Afandi ASIPILA Executive Secretary Caritas Africa said
“And there’s another dimension, the lending money that comes with the highest-level interest, and it push us back to the poverty, we’re not able to pay this dept, because what they will do is to raise taxes and these taxes regime become very expensive for citizens, so that we’re saying about this lending money that the interest must be lowed”, Ms. Lucy added
In the years preceding the last Jubilee, the call for debt forgiveness joined by the leaders all over the World and international financial institutions mobilized $130 billion in debt relief, which helped advance spending for poverty reduction in several countries. Unfortunately, inequities in the international tax, financial and trading systems, together with gap in domestic governance, continued to foster unstainable debt.
This year alone, Africa will spend $90 billion servicing public debt. Yet the average African country’s combined spending on health, education and social protection in two-thirds of their debt payments.
Mukazayire Youyou
